Condemning the Murder of Cícero Guedes, Leader of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement MST

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, JUSTICE, 4 Feb 2013

The Right Livelihood Award Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service

The Right Livelihood Award Foundation strongly condemns the murder of Cícero Guedes, a leader of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement MST. The MST received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) in 1991.

Cícero Guedes dos Santos, coordinator of the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra, MST) of Brazil was killed by gunmen on Friday, January 25th. He received some twelve shots to the head while he was bicycling away from a settlement of landless families in the vicinity of the Cambahyba sugar plant, in the municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes in Rio de Janeiro. It is yet unclear who is responsible for the murder.

The MST received the Right Livelihood Award Foundation in the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm in 1991 “for winning land for landless families and helping them to farm it sustainably”. Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Foundation, said: “The Right Livelihood Award Foundation strongly condemns this crime and calls on the state of Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian government to protect the Landless Movement and their activists.”

Other Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award from all over the world expressed their solidarity and support to the family and colleagues of the murdered activist. The Paraguayan educator and human rights advocate Martín Almada (RLA 2002), lamented that “violent actions continue to claim the lives of Latin American leaders and advocates for the environment and sustainability.”

On their website, the MST explains that Cícero Guedes, who was a sugar-cane cutter, coordinated the occupation of a complex of seven farms with 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) located in the State of Rio de Janeiro. 14 years ago, this large estate was subject to expropriation by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). However, the process continued only recently, when it was approved by the Federal Court in August 2012.

Although 11 years ago he had already managed to acquire land and become a “settler” himself, Cícero Guedes dos Santos remained a tireless advocate of agrarian reform. He taught organic farming techniques to families occupying estates and would always argue that the products obtained from ecologically sound agriculture are “superior” to those sold in supermarkets. His colleagues and family say that nature “was his source of inspiration.”
Cícero Guedes leaves behind five children.

More information:

• Autoridades lamentam assassinato de coordenador do MST no Rio
• Cícero Guedes, coordenador da ocupação na Usina Cambahyba, é assassinado no Rio
• MST Laureate page on www.rightlivelihood.org

Contact:

Nayla Azzinnari
Spanish Press Office
Right Livelihood Award Foundation
Mobile +54 9 11 5460 9860
Phone: +54 3543 422 236
Email: nayla@rightlivelihood.org
Skype: nayla.az

Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra
Email: secgeral@mst.org.br
Skype: mstbrasil
http://www.mst.org.br/

Ole von Uexkull
Executive Director
Right Livelihood Award Foundation
+ 46 8 70 20 337
Email: info@rightlivelihood.org

Martín Almada
Right Livelihood Award 2002
Phone: +595 21 425 345
Email: almada@fcpa.org.py

About the Award:

Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are often referred to as ‘Alternative Nobel Prizes’. They were introduced “to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”. Jakob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German professional philatelist, sold his business to provide the original funding. Since then, individual donors have financed the Award. There are 149 Right Livelihood Award Laureates from 62 countries [including Prof. Johan Galtung, founder of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment].

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 4 Feb 2013.

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